Estes Park News

Estes Park moving ahead with MPEC

Town administrator Frank Lancaster details town projects

By Juley Harvey

Trail-Gazette

Posted:
02/12/2013 07:13:30 AM MST

The town board passed a resolution to go ahead with both the construction of the multipurpose center (MPEC) and the stall barns at the Fairgrounds at Stanley Park, at last Thursday's special town board meeting, attendees at the Association for Responsible Development (ARD)monthly meeting heard Friday morning. Thursday, the town board instructed town staff to come back before them in about a month, with final funding and architectural details on the MPEC. Members of the board of trustees attended the ARD meeting, as well as members of the community, who came to town hall to hear town administrator Frank Lancaster explain how the town prioritizes projects.

Before Fridays morning's meeting, trustee Ron Norris commented that the consultant on the MPEC project said the multipurpose events center and the proposed EPIC downtown theatre project would fit together like a hand in a glove. EPIC will be back before the town board with a reformed proposal that addresses the parking issue on Feb. 26.

ARD member Fred Mares said that Friday's topic would be the MPEC and stall barns, and next month, ARD will hear about plans for the community center, from parks and recreation director Sklyler Rorabaugh.

Mares said ARD has undertaken a community education effort, to help citizens understand the task of town officials and how they prioritize the many projects they have to consider in a year.

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Lancaster said he would like to tell everybody that we have a wonderful system and a perfect set-up, however, things happen while you're busy planning, he said. Even so, he said he and the other town officials attempt to be the best stewards of the tax dollars, which is not an easy thing to do.

There are major capital needs, which require town involvement, from a community stabdpoint, Lancaster said. Among those are: the community center — the recreation district is taking the lead; the MPEC and stall barns; the conference center, which "needs work" and "has been neglected" — the consultant for the MPEC said it's one of the worst places he's ever stayed — that's a "tough thing to hear," Lancaster said; trails; transportation improvements; streets; museum storage; the Pro Cycle Bicycle Race; storm drainage; and internal infrastructure.

Those are "just some of the things that are out there," Lancaster said.

In addition, the state health department has determined that the old landfill on Elm Road is a contamination problem. The town will do studies to find what solutions there are — and maybe there won't be a lot to clean up. Lancaster is familiar with the situation, since he was the Larimer County manager at the time. He closed the landfill in the 1980s, when the health regulations we have now did not exist. In fact, he said, at the time, the number- one site for a landfill location was the Eagle Rock School. Now, instead of the school, there could be trash trucks and "probably not be a north end of town." It's interesting, the way decisions affect life, he observed.

On a more recent note, he announced that in the last few weeks, public works director Scott Zurn, whom he dubbed the "grants king," had just received more grant funding from the state, to build the parking garage at the visitors center. Because of the new $400,000 grant, Lancaster said, the town cost will about $250,000 less than planned. Construction should begin in the fall, he said.

Street improvement needs to be done, before the roads are degraded, and will begin with Dry Gulch Road, he said.

MPEC and stall barns

He praised the town board for doing a good job of due diligence and said on Thursday, all the hard work came together. They put out a bid for costs, which "surprised us, and came in cheaper than we thought," he said.

Johnson Consulting did the pro forma and provided the information that the project will work and make money. Lancaster said The Stanley Hotel provided the consultants with the numbers of people they had to turn away, because they didn't have an exhibition facility.

"People who come to meetings spend money," Lancaster said.

The town would have to subsidize the project for awhile, he acknowledged, and most events centers don't break even in the beginning. Even so, the net gain to the town, with sales tax, could be about $250,000. Eventually, the MPEC would not only pay for itself, Lancaster said, but also help support other efforts.

The town board decided to go for both the MPEC and the stall barns, after looking at debt financing and low rates of 2.5-percent for certificates of participation.

Our stall barns are pretty bad, Lancaster said, and we are starting to hear from participants such as the hunter-jumper events that they don't ant to come back here, because of the condition of the barns. To remain competitive, Lancaster said, we need to upgrade and keep up with the rest of the world, just to keep the events we already have coming here.

A resident suggested selling off the old barn doors as antiques, recycling material and getting money for it.

"There are a lot of creative things to do," Lancaster said, welcoming the suggestion. "Such as naming rights — the Budweiser Center at The Ranch."

The town could sell names and sponsorships to bring costs down and quality up. Still, there is a sensitivity to the community to be considered, he added.

ARD member Thomas Gootz asked about the town board's decision Thursday. Will there be one more vote to accept the package, once they have the financing details and strategies?

Yes, Lancaster said, although it mostly looks doable, at this point. Board members will determine how much cash they will have to put up and how much needs to be borrowed for the project, and how we market and sell the project. The town board wants to do things right, he added, not be pennywise and pound foolish.

"Still, "sometimes, you take a leap," he said. Thursday night, the town board took "a little bit of a leap of faith."

He added that there can by "paralysis by analysis." Communities and markets change, he said. Something that might not have made sense 20 years ago, might today, he said. What do we want the town to look like in 30 years? We want to draw a whole landscape, not just a still life, he said. To have citizens feel they are being heard, we talk about how to keep the public involved and do public outreach, elect people to leadership positions.

If we wait until everybody agreed on everything, we'd be doing nothing but studies, all the time, Lancaster said. For instance, he said, there were innumerable arguments when Safeway wanted to locate here, and people believed The Stanley would burn down because or the ugly corporate store. However, Lancaster asked how many people would go back to the cost of the mom-and-pop stores now. Although controversial at the time, most people would agree Safeway was a good move now, he added.

It takes leadership and guts to take the heat and step up and do it, Lancaster said.

Gootz said ARD wants to be a part of that planning, and Lancaster suggested visioning meetings with the group would be quite beneficial to all.

"Looking at what you want to see, have fun with it, dream, this would be a fun group to do that with," the town administrator said.

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